


Make Me A Bird Of Prey

by Chaotic_Gay_Bard



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Warlock Cassandra, bullshitted de rolo family inside jokes and history, i have never done this before and i have exactly no idea what is happening, masks and birds, the english language is awful and i struggle through, the entirety of prestream history is vague enough to where I just said fuck it and made it my own
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-02 21:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10228331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaotic_Gay_Bard/pseuds/Chaotic_Gay_Bard
Summary: Cassandra escapes Whitestone instead of Percy and is angry. She wants her family back and she wants justice, but she settles for revenge. Or: This is EXACTLY the kind of story the Pact of the Blade was made for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is all based off of soleminisanction's warlock cassandra au (which I saw and just had to try). It is also essentially my first attempt at fandom writing ever so this will be fun to try. Title from Mother by Florence and the Machine.

Let it never be said that Cassandra de Rolo would not go through hell for her family. She had been thirteen when she had stolen away from the bodies and the violence to slip into the dungeons and find her last surviving relative, Percy. They had fled through the snow, but two arrows had found Percy’s leg, and he fell hard. Cassandra had turned back, but Percy told her to go. Flee as far she could. So Cassandra turned, and continued running. As the guards continued to chase her, she jumped into the freezing river, and then it all went black.

Cassandra did recall coming to consciousness on a table in a warm room with two women her mother’s age standing over her.

“How did I get here?” She had asked.

“We found you on the banks of a river near here. What happened to you?” One of the women, the taller one, had asked 

“I’d rather not say. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“Of course. What’s your name?” The shorter woman then asked.

“Cassandra. Who are you?”

“This is Al, and I’m Mel. We were preparing to leave on a fishing trip when we found you.”

Cassandra had offered to come along and help as payment. They had agreed, and Cassandra made her way south on a tiny little fishing vessel.

Cassandra had always been a quick study, so she acquired a decent talent for the duties laid upon her. Over the next two years, she developed a fondness for the salt and the sun, and grew to feel at home on the rocking sea.

One night, Cassandra dreamt of an ancient smoke with an even older voice calling to her, promising vengeance for her family. Let it never be said that Cassandra wouldn’t go through hell for her family. It promised her a means, it promised her not quite justice, but vengeance was close enough. When she awoke, a list of names was on her wrist, and her mother’s shortsword was clutched in her hand. She left the next time they docked.

Out of all of the names on her wrist, there was a single name she recognized as the most important. Professor Anders; that _fucking turncoat_. He was clever, and few people could lie like him. He was dangerous, and he needed to die.

Cassandra’s first chance came one morning in Stillben. She had seen Anders in the square, and her opportunity. It slipped through her fingers when she was thrown into jail after failing.

She wasted away while several days and several nights passed, and then the sounds of a small ruckus were kicked up, and the cell door hung open. She didn’t quite recall the next few hours, she just knew that she had just escaped from the cell with the aid of some very odd people.

When they had dared to stop running, they had tucked themselves into a corner in a small tavern. Cassandra sat between a half-elven man and a gnome man in a bright purple shirt. Around them them was a goliath with a gnome woman next to him, a red dragonborn, and two half-elven women.

When the man in black next to her had asked her name, Cassandra had only told them her first name. Only a few had inquired about a last name further, and she had clarified it with a simple shake of her head and said, “Just Cassandra.” The half elf next to her had smiled and introduced himself as “Just Vax.” Cassandra had thanked the gods for the lack of needing a full name around these people.

Cassandra went about making a place for herself rather quickly. She was formidable enough with her short sword that she was useful in a fight, and Vax did lend her a few spare daggers and she became quite proficient at wielding them both. She was a quick thinker and a smooth enough of a talker to where she was useful to talking them in and out of places, and with all these skills, she began to carve a small niche for herself amongst this peculiar band of mercenaries.

By the time they had all settled into Grayskull Keep, Cassandra had acquired a goal of filling her room with books. Spare novels in Elvish, history books in all sorts of languages, storybooks in Celestial, and a few books in some languages she was interested in picking up. Occasionally, one of them would come through in search of a book out of boredom, a donation, or just out of curiosity. Pike would pick up a few silly novels in Common she had nicked over the years, Vex would slip her the most awful novels she had in Elvish (Cassandra in turn, would hand over something of matching or worse quality), Vax would just try and guess who had slipped what awful books onto the shelf, and Keyleth would sort through and make conversation.

One day, when it was Keyleth poking at the countless books, she came across something odd on a bookshelf. It was a deep black mask, adorned with a glittering lace-like pattern and feathers on the edges. It had a sharply pointed nose reminiscent of a bird’s beak, that looked as if it would fit closely to Cassandra’s.

“Cassie-” Cassandra looked at her from a separate bookshelf in the room, “What is this?” Keyleth held up the mask.

Cassandra walked over and took the mask into her hands, and smiled absently.

“This was a birthday gift from my older sister from a few years ago. There’s quite a story behind it.”

“Would you mind telling me?”

“Not at all. I was the youngest out of seven, and my older sister was the second oldest, so much of the story is based in what happened before I was born.” Keyleth nodded.

“When my sister, Vesper, was younger, if anyone had anything shiny or remotely pretty, it would be her’s before they left the room. Nothing was safe around her, and she earned the nickname Magpie. She received a mask like this one. Well, I came along a decent set of years after, and I was _terrible_.” Cassandra laughed a little on the last word.

“I may not have had fingers that were as sticky as Vesper’s, but, in my mother's words: 'trouble followed at my heels like a dog.' Nothing and no one was safe from my plots, and I was clever about my plans. So, of course, when I received my mask, it was a crow. Same family as magpies and ravens, and one of the most clever and troublesome birds we know of. I believe my brother, Percival and Vesper made this for me.” Cassandra smiled fondly at the mask in her hands, but there seemed to be a sadness beneath it.

“It’s lovely,” said Keyleth.

They resumed their rummaging through the books shortly after, and before what felt like any time had taken place, they were off to Kraghammer to find Lady Kima of Vord.


	2. Chapter 2

When they returned from the Underdark with the Horn of Orcus and Lady Kima, they almost immediately find themselves in a meeting with the Council. When they are speaking with Sovereign Uriel; he hands off the papers to a servant and he tells him to get them Lady and Lord Briarwood as soon as possible, and Cassandra felt all of the air in her lungs die. Cassandra felt herself surrounded by an inescapable scent of blood, and as the bodies of her family flashed behind her irises, she loses herself in the sounds of shouts and the cold winter air biting through her nightdress. For the first time in five years now, she had stolen a glance at her wrist and was terrified. When she returns to reality, Vax is explaining the illithid and the beholder, and no one had noticed.

After they had concluded the meeting, Cassandra found her way to the Sovereign and inquired about the Briarwoods in such a polite and even way she feels Vesper would have been proud. When she inquires just a little further, and is told the Briarwoods inherited the region of Whitestone after the unfortunate demise of the De Rolo family, she feels a powerful fiendish anger shoot through her veins, but she bites her lip and merely asks the Sovereign Uriel to notify her if they come back through, for she has unfinished business with them and it would be lovely to surprise old acquaintances. When Sovereign Uriel thinks nothing more and agrees, she smiles brightly and thanks him.

Later, in the main hall of the palace, the previous events replay in her mind, and she cannot help the sigh that leaves her. Of course Keyleth hones in on it.

“Cassie-”

“I’m fine.” Cassandra’s reply is too quick, and they both know it.

“You’re sweating.”

“I know.”

“Did something happen?”

“Nothing, I’m just more suited for colder climates. I’ll tell you later, but now there are more important things.” Because putting off important things has always worked out so well.

Then they’re off to Vasselheim, and later is postponed for as long as possible, and Cassandra breathes and temporarily allows herself to pretend it doesn’t exist. When they kill the hydra and are escorted into the Slayer’s Take, they’re met with a halfling. Then they are taken to the Huntmaster Vanessa, and told they must take up a contract and fill it within three days to prove themselves.

She’s in the guild hall the next morning with Grog, Scanlan, and Vex. A tiefling woman with red skin walks in and studies them. Vex is the first to ask her name, and she obliges. Her name is Zahra, and she then asks for theirs. She uses her full name this time.

Not too long after, a human woman shuffles in and trips. She stumbles through her words, but is unabashedly sunny in her demeanor. She babbles until the Huntmaster returns, and then work begins. The Huntmaster hands her the contract, and she reads it aloud, and as she reads out the quarry, she does a double take. They are being sent to slay a dragon.

They make camp that night, and when Cassandra wakes Grog up for his watch, she falls asleep easily. She jolts awake when Grog shouts out, and she is up with her sword and dagger in hand quick enough. Orcs and dire wolves; she’s in the fray quickly. She sets to one quickly and fells him easily, and then strikes at another. She looks incredibly undignified right now, but Cassandra for one, does not really care. Oh, if only Julius could see her. His laughter echoes in her mind, him shouting to Oliver and Vesper, _“Careful! The imp found a short sword and she’s out for blood!”_

When Grog kills the final orc, they pause briefly, and it occurs to Cassandra that she must be some kind of a sight. Her nightdress is ripped and slipping off one shoulder, leaving a significant amount of her chest exposed; blood and dirt is streaked across her face. While using a spare strip of fabric to remove some of the blood from her face, she makes eye contact with Vex and Zahra.

“Dear, you have a little-” Zahra cut herself off and gestured at her face.

Cassandra laughed and moved her dress back to her shoulder, and continued to rub the grime from her face until she fell asleep. They had a dragon to kill. 

Cassandra is not exactly the most cautious of fighters. She expected to not fare quite too well against an adult white dragon, but all the same, she got knocked unconscious. When she awakes to Grog standing over her, she notices the large and dead white dragon next to her, and then she and Zahra are carving the eyes and tongue out of the damned thing. They take the harvest back to the guild and are met by the rest of them. Keyleth and Vax hugged her quickly on sight, and jolted back quickly when Cassandra grimaced and flinched away in pain. Keyleth had approached her slowly again, taking out a raven mask she had purchased while on her trial.

“Cassie, we match now,” Keyleth smiled, presenting the mask to Cassandra.

“Indeed.” Cassandra grinned.


End file.
